The price of housing continues to skyrocket in the second quarter

BarcelonaCatalonia recorded a 10.1% increase in housing purchase costs between April and June 2026 compared to the same period last year, according to the housing price index, updated this Monday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). The increase, although it is slowing down slightly compared to figures recently recorded –with rises above 11% in some quarters of last year–, remains among the highest since the COVID-19 pandemic, and has chained rises above double digits since the end of 2024. In fact, the increase between April and June is the third highest in the historical series, only surpassed by the second quarters of 2007 (+10.3%) and 2025 (+11.6%).

If the quarterly variation is taken into account, housing prices in Catalonia recorded an increase of 2.4% in the second quarter compared to the period between January and March.

The statistics point to rises above 10% in Catalonia since the last quarter of 2024. The largest increase occurred in the first quarter of 2025, with an 11.7% year-on-year increase in housing prices. This year, both the first and second quarters recorded increases below the 11% threshold, but without losing the double digits.

Since the bursting of the real estate bubble in 2008 and until the last quarter of 2024, the 10% year-on-year cost increase had only been exceeded on two occasions, in the third and fourth quarters of 2017, at 10% and 10.2%, respectively. In fact, the INE Housing Price Index has risen uninterruptedly on a year-on-year basis since the second quarter of 2014.

By type of housing, second-hand housing became 10.6% more expensive in the second quarter compared to the same period last year, while new housing did so at a slower rate, of 6.4%.

The price increase between quarters occurs only among second-hand homes, which became 2.7% more expensive compared to the levels between January and March, while the prices of new homes fell by 0.3% from one quarter to the next.

Faster price increase in Spain as a whole

Despite the sharp increases, Catalonia is the third autonomous community with the lowest increase, only above Navarre and the Basque Country. In the country as a whole, the year-on-year increase in housing prices between April and June was 12.2%, two points higher than the Catalan figure. The autonomous communities that had the highest increases were Ceuta, Asturias, and Castile and León.

In the same way as in Catalonia, the price increase in the country in the second quarter was led by second-hand housing, with an average year-on-year increase of 12.9%. Conversely, new housing prices rose by 7.4% year-on-year.

Regarding the variation between the first and second quarters of the year, prices increased by an average of 3.4% in the country. The sale of second-hand housing became 3.7% more expensive between one quarter and the next, while new housing prices did so by 1%.